An Iowa state employee embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars and for years sanitized records to hide the fraud, according to an investigative audit released Friday.

Leslie Carey, an Iowa Department of Agriculture employee, was named in Friday’s audit that identified $441,440 of financial improprieties.

Carey — who recently changed her name and was known as Leslie Grundy — used multiple credit or bank cards to transfer money to her personal accounts or pay at dozens of restaurants, grocery stores and retail businesses, the audit released by Iowa Auditor Mary Mosiman shows.

Carey worked as an assistant for the Black Hawk and Bremer Soil and Water Conservation Districts from 2010 until financial irregularities were discovered and she was placed on leave in December 2017.

Online court records do not indicate that Carey has been charged in connection with the audit, which was launched in late 2017. Attempts to reach her Friday were unsuccessful.

The 304-page audit shows that records and receipts provided to the conservation boards had been altered to remove fraudulent purchases from bank or card statements before meetings of the soil and water district commissions.

Carey was the only person who had the opportunity to change the information on the bank statements, the audit said.

Disparities initially were discovered when another state employee asked questions about delinquent payments to soil district employee retirement accounts. Carey allegedly provided the state employee the cellphone number of a relative instead of a soil commission chairwoman. The state employee caught the disparity via caller ID and alerted officials.

Black Hawk County Attorney Brian Williams said Friday that law enforcement is reviewing the matter.

Court records show Carey named as the defendant in at least 15 small claims cases in Iowa unrelated to the soil districts.

This is not the first state audit to find embezzlement by an agriculture employee who worked for one of the state’s 100 soil and water districts.

Former Mahaska County Soil and Water Conservation District employee Jessica Strasser admitted to coworkers that “I am a coward and took advantage of those that care for me,” in an apology letter included in a 2014 audit report. In that case about $280,000 had been misspent, the audit found.

The agriculture department updated its financial reporting practices in 2013 in light of the Mahaska County incident. Conservation assistants are not authorized to make payments from soil and water district accounts.

For unknown reasons, however, Carey’s access to the accounts remained in place, Friday’s audit shows.

Dustin Vande Hoef, a spokesman for the agriculture department, said any misuse of public money is “completely unacceptable” and the agency “is anxious” for anyone found guilty to be held accountable.

The department has launched a review of further financial policy safeguards to prevent future fraud, he said.

“We will not let these alleged actions deter from the important soil conservation and water quality efforts underway across the state,” Vande Hoef said.